Antisemitism kills the goose

EXAMINER EDITORIAL WRITER

Published 4:00 am, Monday, October 20, 1997

1997-10-20 04:00:00 PDT MALAYSIA -- PRIME MINISTER Mahathir Mohamed of Malaysia is known as a relatively effective Third World leader largely responsible for his country's impressive economic growth - 8 percent annually over the last decade. But he pushes massive projects that don't always make economic sense: a $4.9 billion dam in the Borneo jungle, a highway along the country's mountainous spine, an offshore airport to cost $10.9 billion, a Multimedia Super Corridor to serve the information age. Kuala Lumpur has twin towers that are the tallest buildings in the world.

Malaysia is beset with currency problems similar to those plaguing Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Reasons, in Malaysia's case, include over-expansion and the tapering off of an export boom. Mahathir's grandiose undertakings are too much for a nation of 20 million with a gross domestic product of $47 billion. The value of its currency has dropped 30 percent in recent weeks.

Instead of knuckling under to the need for retrenchment and more realistic projections of what Malaysia can do, Mahathir looks for scapegoats. Last month, he accused American financier George Soros of causing the fall of the ringgit. The prime minister suggested a ban on currency trading. He attacked the Western press and "sinister powers" for having "pressured our currency to make us poor again." And in a particularly sad choice of target, he blamed "the Jews."

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Mahathir told a rally of Muslim villagers that "the Jews are not happy to see the Muslims progress" and might have an "agenda" to weaken the Malaysian economy: "The Jews robbed the Palestinians of everything, but in Malaysia, they could not do so, hence they do this, depress the ringgit."

This self-absolving evocation of Hitler comes, strangely, from a national leader who recently visited Los Angeles in his quest for high-tech investment money. Mahathir has failed to reconcile his international economic ambition with his grungy bigotry. Malaysia will need better than that to succeed in the next decade.&lt;